The next three practices you will be introduced to (Practices 3, 4, and 5) are geared at demonstrating ownership and conviction.
We’ll start with Practice #3 – Take a Stand.
Say you come across a thorny issue that requires the involvement of more people than just you. You sit down to draft up an email detailing the issue, background, relevant data, as well as the pros and cons of the three best courses of action available.
Nice. Right?
Not entirely. I mean, you’ve done a nice job (probably) of laying out the landscape, and that’s value-add for sure. But it doesn’t sound like you’ve taken a stand. You’re leaving that on the table. If you haven’t recommended a solution, then where you might have gotten stuck is: you’ve stated the problem, provided the data, and schlepped it to someone else’s doorstep, leaving it for them to make the hard call.
You are in the no-opinion zone. This drives other people crazy. Trust me, I hear about it all the time from managers and other leaders.
Get in there and take a stand! Have an opinion and share it. It’s part of the missing 10% that goes such a long way toward driving toward your goals. You might notice that conversations often cover more ground and have more productive forward momentum when the people involved are forthcoming about their opinions and transparent about how they reached those opinions.